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Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony had not hardly entered rehearsals when the political climate turned against the composer and made him having the piece performed impossible.

A. had not hardly entered rehearsals when the political climate turned against the composer and made him havingB. had not hardly entered rehearsals when the political climate turned against the composer and made his havingC. had hardly entered rehearsals when the political climate turned against the composer and made his havingD. had hardly entered rehearsals when the political climate turned against the composer and made him havingE. had hardly entered rehearsals when the political climate turned against the composer and made himself having

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29 Jan 2010, 01:05

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Hey You Guys,

This is an interesting question, so I thought I'd weigh in. The correct answer is actually C, not D. This is a parallelism issue, which we can recognize by finding the word "and". Whenever you see conjunctions like "and" or "or", ask yourself what elements need to be parallel. In this case, we can use the second element more effectively.

The word "made" comes after the "and", this means that we must be paralleling verbs. The other verb is "turned". We cannot change the subject of both of these verbs: "the political climate". So did the political climate make "him..." or "his..."? It wouldn't make any sense for the political climate to make him do something. That would imply that Shostakovich had to DO something. But what the climate did was make the performance of his symphony impossible. This can be reworded as "made his having the piece performed impossible".

This is an example of a verb phrase acting as a noun, like "Having good friends is a great thing". In this case, the action of "having good friends" is serving as a noun in the sentence. Likewise "having the piece performed" is a noun, the object of the verb "make" (which you can even think of as "make impossible" to simplify things in your head). Just to round this out, "his" is a possessive pronoun modifying the action "having the piece performed". "Him" is an object pronoun, and illogical here.

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29 Jan 2010, 07:25

TommyWallach wrote:

Hey You Guys,

This is an interesting question, so I thought I'd weigh in. The correct answer is actually C, not D. This is a parallelism issue, which we can recognize by finding the word "and". Whenever you see conjunctions like "and" or "or", ask yourself what elements need to be parallel. In this case, we can use the second element more effectively.

The word "made" comes after the "and", this means that we must be paralleling verbs. The other verb is "turned". We cannot change the subject of both of these verbs: "the political climate". So did the political climate make "him..." or "his..."? It wouldn't make any sense for the political climate to make him do something. That would imply that Shostakovich had to DO something. But what the climate did was make the performance of his symphony impossible. This can be reworded as "made his having the piece performed impossible".

This is an example of a verb phrase acting as a noun, like "Having good friends is a great thing". In this case, the action of "having good friends" is serving as a noun in the sentence. Likewise "having the piece performed" is a noun, the object of the verb "make" (which you can even think of as "make impossible" to simplify things in your head). Just to round this out, "his" is a possessive pronoun modifying the action "having the piece performed". "Him" is an object pronoun, and illogical here.

Hope that helps. Great question!

Tommy WallachManhattanGMAT

I picked D, but i thought it is C after your explanation. +1 kudo
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29 Jan 2010, 16:20

C, should be "his having"

It just sounds "cleaner" to my ear because I used to get this wrong in English class all the time (10 years ago...) so this lesson stuck to me.

I received this email today (from a vendor to my supervisor):"I’m not sure why someone can’t simply read my previous email to the questions below but perhaps me copying and pasting the answers into this email will help."

The "me" should be "my" and it'll read much better. Thanks for the explanation too Tommy.
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10 Apr 2011, 21:51

both A and B are rejected for using two negatives - 'hardly' and 'not' distorting the meaning of the sentence.E is clearly not making sense- made himself the piece peroformed impossible is incorrect usage Amongst D and C the only difference is use of him or his. Since having the performance is something that the composer wanted- it is his ' xxxxxx' for example - 'my having to perfect every exam is an obsession i cant get over!'

"The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins." - Bob Moawab

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10 Sep 2011, 09:49

TommyWallach wrote:

Hey You Guys,

This is an interesting question, so I thought I'd weigh in. The correct answer is actually C, not D. This is a parallelism issue, which we can recognize by finding the word "and". Whenever you see conjunctions like "and" or "or", ask yourself what elements need to be parallel. In this case, we can use the second element more effectively.

The word "made" comes after the "and", this means that we must be paralleling verbs. The other verb is "turned". We cannot change the subject of both of these verbs: "the political climate". So did the political climate make "him..." or "his..."? It wouldn't make any sense for the political climate to make him do something. That would imply that Shostakovich had to DO something. But what the climate did was make the performance of his symphony impossible. This can be reworded as "made his having the piece performed impossible".

This is an example of a verb phrase acting as a noun, like "Having good friends is a great thing". In this case, the action of "having good friends" is serving as a noun in the sentence. Likewise "having the piece performed" is a noun, the object of the verb "make" (which you can even think of as "make impossible" to simplify things in your head). Just to round this out, "his" is a possessive pronoun modifying the action "having the piece performed". "Him" is an object pronoun, and illogical here.

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24 Sep 2011, 09:22

TommyWallach wrote:

Hey You Guys,

This is an interesting question, so I thought I'd weigh in. The correct answer is actually C, not D. This is a parallelism issue, which we can recognize by finding the word "and". Whenever you see conjunctions like "and" or "or", ask yourself what elements need to be parallel. In this case, we can use the second element more effectively.

The word "made" comes after the "and", this means that we must be paralleling verbs. The other verb is "turned". We cannot change the subject of both of these verbs: "the political climate". So did the political climate make "him..." or "his..."? It wouldn't make any sense for the political climate to make him do something. That would imply that Shostakovich had to DO something. But what the climate did was make the performance of his symphony impossible. This can be reworded as "made his having the piece performed impossible".

This is an example of a verb phrase acting as a noun, like "Having good friends is a great thing". In this case, the action of "having good friends" is serving as a noun in the sentence. Likewise "having the piece performed" is a noun, the object of the verb "make" (which you can even think of as "make impossible" to simplify things in your head). Just to round this out, "his" is a possessive pronoun modifying the action "having the piece performed". "Him" is an object pronoun, and illogical here.

Hope that helps. Great question!

Tommy WallachManhattanGMAT

wonderful explanation. thnx!
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